(1 of )This image provided by the Santa Ana Police Department shows Marilyn Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Ariz., who was arrested Sept. 14, 2013, and booked on suspicion of murder in the deaths of two children. A 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were found dead in a Southern California hotel room after their mother crashed her car outside a shopping complex. (AP Photo/Santa Ana Police Department)

Southern California: Kids killed, mother arrested after suicide try

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS | September 15, 2013

SANTA ANA — Two children found dead in a Southern California hotel room after their suicidal mother crashed her car outside a shopping complex were a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, a police spokesman said Sunday.

The children's mother, Marilyn Edge, 42, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was arrested Saturday and booked on suspicion of murder in the deaths, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. She was expected in court Tuesday for an arraignment hearing.

Further information, including the names of the children, the motive and the cause of death, was not being released, he said. The children's father lives out-of-state and was not notified of their deaths until Sunday.

Edge was driving a car with Georgia license plates when she crashed into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning. Her most recent address was in Arizona, Bertagna said, and it wasn't immediately clear why she had come to Orange County.

After the crash, Edge refused to get out of the car and tried to choke herself with a belt or rope as rescuers worked to free her, he said. Police found propane in Edge's car.

As she was being taken to the hospital, Edge told authorities they could find her children at a hotel in nearby Santa Ana. After officers discovered the bodies, police obtained a search warrant late Saturday for the hotel room and worked overnight on the case, Bertagna said.

"Last night, it was mainly trying to figure out who these people were and dealing with the scene itself," he said.

No weapon had been recovered from the scene, Bertagna said.

Hotel guests were stunned at the discovery at the quiet inn on a sunny weekend in Southern California.

"My goodness, if there's two children involved that's just horrendous to say the least," Mike Ramey, who was staying at the hotel with his fianc?, told KABC-TV. "As a parent, it's just a heartbreaker."